


Tomato Soup

by pinchess07



Series: Take Care of My Fragile Little Heart [3]
Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Family Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Graves Lives, M/M, Newt's babies take care of him, Sick!Graves, Sickfic, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-15
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-09-17 15:47:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9332162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinchess07/pseuds/pinchess07
Summary: For this prompt at the km:I need a fic where Newt's creatures take care of Graves when he's sick. Maybe Dougal makes him soup. Maybe the Niffler brings him shiny metal teaspoons for medicine (only he leaves those pesky glass bottles of goop in the cabinet because who wants those?). Whatever. Just the creatures taking care of a sick Graves.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Not beta'ed.

"Boss, you planning on going home anytime soon?" Tina asks, knocking on his desk to get his attention. Percival looks up slowly from the file in his hand with bleary, half-lidded eyes.  
  
"Hm? What was-- Achoo!"  
  
His sneeze echoes through his office door and the empty Auror Department beyond it. He sniffs, and rubs his nose with his hand.  
  
"Excuse me. What did you say?" Percival asks, finally putting down the file on top of his desk in defeat. He'd been staring at it for too long without understanding what it said. It can wait for tomorrow.  
  
"Bless you, Percival," Tina replies. "Everybody else has already left, Boss. It's Friday, you should go home and rest up. And drink a PepperUp potion before you end up with the flu. I know Newt's gone for the weekend, but that doesn't mean you can just hole up in here every time he's out of the country!"  
  
Percival rubs his temples, trying to chase away the headache that Tina's nagging brought on. He appreciates her concern, honestly, but he'd been trying to take his mind off of Newt leaving again, and now she's gone and reminded him of it.  
  
"I'll be fine, Tina. Thank you. I wasn't planning on staying here for much longer, and I'm certainly not holing up here the whole time Newt's gone. He left several of his babies at home, this time. I'll just tidy up my desk a bit and I'll be going," he sighs. Tina looks at him suspiciously for a moment before nodding, apparently satisfied that he was telling the truth.  
  
"Alright. Good night, Boss," she offers, and turns to leave.  
  
"Good night. See you on Monday," Percival replies.  
  
\--  
  
It's been a long week. He'd been working hard for the annual department review, and the last year had been a clusterfuck because of Grindelwald, so he had his work cut out for him. Then Newt had to take care of an acromantula.  
  
It wasn't as bad as the last time Newt left, true. He'd said goodbye to Percival this morning. He'll be back on Sunday night. He'd taken most of his babies, but he left David, an occamy that's been particularly attached to Percival ever since Percival had mistaken him for a scarf. Dougal had stayed behind as well, most likely to look after David while Percival was at work for the day. Nym the puffskein had also refused to budge from her position on Percival's pillow, so Percival has three creatures to look after.  
  
The three of them are fairly tame, so Percival doesn't mind. He takes one step out of the Woolsworth building, gets a faceful of a frigid gust of wind, and sneezes three times in rapid succession.  
  
He hurries to the apparition point, shivering minutely.  
  
\--  
  
He grimaces at his bathroom's mini-closet. Of course he's out of PepperUp. Newt has a habit of drinking them as an alternative for tea. He sniffs and slowly trudges back to the couch on the living room. He collapses into it heavily, thinking that at least it doesn't seem so big and empty compared to the bed when Newt's not around.  
  
He feels something warm and feathery slithering all over him, and he smiles tiredly. It's David, who'd enlarged himself big enough to cover Percival'd body like a living, breathing, warm blanket. Percival never thought there would come a day when he would find a huge occamy comforting, but here he is.  
  
He's asleep before he knows it.  
  
\--  
  
He wakes to the feeling of something going up his nose.  
  
"Achoo!"  
  
The thing dives back into his nostril, and it makes Percival's nose unbelievably itchy. He squints his eyes open to tawny fur with eyes, perched on David's head on his chest. Its long, pink tongue is stretched over the distance to his face, leading into his left nostril.  
  
He sniffs, and Nym retracts her tongue.  
  
"Oh," Percival sighs in realization. Puffskeins eat _mucus._ He rubs his nose.  
  
"Thank you, Nym."  
  
Nym hums when he rubs her fluffy body with his palm. Under her, David chirps. Percival smiles, moving his free hand to rub David's head as well. "Forgive me. Thanks to you too, David. I really appreciate it."  
  
A small hand cards through his hair, and he turns his head to see Dougal perched on the arm of the couch. His smile grows wider.  
  
"You too, Dougal. I'm sorry I didn't see you there earlier."  
  
Dougal dips his head slightly, and continues carding his hand through Percival's hair. The motion eventually lulls him back to sleep.  
  
\--  
  
In the morning, he feels rested, though his body feels heavy. He rubs his eyes and yawns. The first thing he sees is a massive blue-green blanket covering him.  
  
_David. Right._  
  
He turns his head to look around for Nym, and feels something move above his head.  
  
_Of course, she's on my head. Where else would she be?_  
  
He reaches up to rub her fondly, making her hum in appreciation. He slowly sits up, shifting a sleeping David slowly off his body. Nym refuses to leave his hair all through his morning ritual in the bathroom, but he's used to it by now. He does everything slower than usual, because he doesn't have to go to work.  
  
He enters the kitchen to just in time to see Dougal squeezing a tomato to a pulp in the kitchen counter. There's a half-filled bowl of... _pureed_... tomatoes not far from where Dougal is standing.  
  
He stands rooted to the kitchen entrance.  
  
He reminds himself that he's accepted food from Dougal before. He's seen Dougal wash apples and pears and kiwis and other fruits before handing them over to Percival. He knows Newt taught Dougal to wash his hands first before handling food, and he's seen Dougal do it loads of times.  
  
It's still disconcerting to realize that Dougal hand-squeezed the tomatoes into mush. Nym sticks her tongue up Percival's nose, snapping him out of his daze. When he glances back, Dougal is already washing the tomato off his hands.  
  
_I can't refuse. Dougal will be disappointed and Newt would be sad._  
  
Dougal perks up when he sees Percival. He grabs the bowl of tomato mush and sets it on the kitchen table. Susprisingly, he grabs a head of celery and some leeks from the pantry and presents them to Percival.Percival accepts the vegetables dumbly. Dougal makes an impatient noise, making a cutting motion with his hand.  
  
"...You want me to cut these?" Percival guesses, slowly catching on. Dougal nods. Percival feels his body move to the knife drawer, unlocking it with a flick of his hand.  
  
He feels like he's still dreaming as he follows Dougal's instructions to complete the soup. When he sits down to eat it later, he notes that it actually tastes rather nice.  
  
\--  
  
He spends the rest of the day on the couch, cuddling with David and Dougal, thinking of Newt, and eventually getting used to Nym's tongue up his nose.  
  
He wonders if Newt has ever had a cold like this, if Newt has ever been taken care of by his beasts in return. The most likely answer, he concludes, is _yes._  
  
\--  
  
On Sunday morning, he wakes with a yelp, flinching away from something cold being pressed to his cheek. There's a niffler holding a silver spoon aloft in front of him, as if it's intending to press the spook to his cheek again.  
  
"Maynard! What are you-- You woke him!" Newt shouts, sprinting in from the kitchen. "Percival, I'm so sorry. I just turned my back for a minute, but... you know how my niffler is."  
  
"You're back," Percival breathes out in amazement. Newt ducks his head, smiling shyly.  
  
"I finished earlier than I expected," Newt explains, and Percival can't help but beam at him. "Why were you sleeping on the couch?"  
  
"I get lonely when you're not in bed with me," Percival answers bluntly, making Newt blush adorably.  
  
"Oh."  
  
"I missed you--ah!" Percival cries, because Maynard had pressed the spoon to his cheek again. He holds Maynard by the scruff. "Please don't do that. It's cold."  
  
Newt snickers. "You should be honored. He's offering you _silver._ He doesn't do that for just anyone."  
  
"Honored. Of course. Especially since it's silver from my own house," Percival replies, shaking his head fondly. He gently takes the spoon from Maynard, who squeaks and nods at him. "I'll use it next time I have to eat Dougal's tomato soup."  
  
"Tomato soup...? Were you sick?" Newt asks in alarm, confirming Percival's theory that Dougal had made the soup before. That Newt had been sick before, and Dougal (and maybe some of the others) had helped take care of him.  
  
"I'm fine now. It was just a cold, and Dougal, Nym and David took care of me," Percival assures him.  
  
"Oh! That's good," Newt sighs in relief, snuggling up next to Percival on the couch.  
  
"Someone drank all the PepperUp and forgot to buy more," Percival teases, and Newt flushes to the tips of his ears. He buries his head in Percival's shoulder.  
  
"I'm so sorry! It won't happen again, I promise."  
  
Percival wraps his arms around Newt and places a kiss on top of Newt's head. "It's all right. I didn't mind it at all."

**Author's Note:**

> I'd love to know what you think! :)


End file.
